Lack of Animation Promotion on Max

[awinger24]

Two Great Animated Shows Just Dropped New Seasons On Max – But WB's Marketing Sure Didn't Let You Know - SlashFilm

"The absolute bare minimum the corporations and studios platforming their work can do is let their millions of followers and subscribers know when a new season, series, or movie is out ... and they can't even do that. Instead, writers and animators try like hell to drum up attention through their personal accounts, while fans and entertainment writers do their best to spread the good gospel.

It's extra annoying to see Max drop the ball on these shows so heavily because both third seasons are fantastic and well worth renewal. "Jellystone!" in particular is a show that could boast the longevity of something like "Bob's Burgers," but considering how many people don't even know the show exists (let alone recently dropped a third season), it's hard not to feel like those who love it are just screaming into the void.

Read More: Two Great Animated Shows Just Dropped New Seasons On Max – But WB's Marketing Sure Didn't Let You Know - SlashFilm"

Animation on Max is suffering from a lack of promotion. Jellystone!, Batwheels, Bugs Bunny Builders, Tiny Toons Looniversity and Looney Tunes Cartoons to name just a few.

Ever since the WBD merger, animation, especially kids and family programming has been treated as an afterthought.

Final Space, Infinity Train, and DC Super Hero Girls all suffered the unfortunate of being purged and removed from streaming platforms and digital retailers to cut costs and to avoid paying residuals. Final Space had the worst fate of being a content write-off which means WBD can not legally monetize it in any way.

Jellystone!, Batwheels, Bugs Bunny Builders, Tiny Toons Looniversity and Looney Tunes Cartoons could suffer a write-down or could even be erased from existence via a write-off if Zaslav, Casey Bloys (Chief Content Officer at Max) and his executives go too far. Batwheels, Bugs Bunny Builders and Tiny Toons Looniversity aren't likely going to get purged after their runs have concluded (Season 6 of Looney Tunes Cartoons is not added to iTunes yet).

WBD's venture into the Kids and Family market is at least doing well internationally.

i am just saying if WBD wants to attract kids and families on Max, they need to have the advertising to market Max as the HBO name initially drove that demographic away and especially after the infamous content purge of August 2022.

 

[JMTV]

Even though I still stand by the fact the Looney Tunes franchise is going to be fine, even after Zaslav is gone, but what really pisses me off is the fact that Warner Bros in general didn't really value animation as they should be. They almost like if they treated it as like an afterthought to the company.

To be fair, the lack of promotion for animated content on Max is nothing new, even before Zaslav took over, but it's still infuriating to me that WB did the bare minimum of advertising their own shows, and just quickly toss them aside as if they're disposable content for the kiddies that they don't really give a crap about.

I mean, shoot, when freaking Paramount did a better job advertising their Nickelodeon kids content on Paramount Plus than Warner Bros did with Max, you got problems.

 

[TsWade2]

Even though I am concerned with the fate of Looney Tunes from time to time and still upset that the season 6 of Looney Tunes Cartoons didn't come to Itunes yet, Looney Tunes will be fine.

 

[Silverstar]

I'd like to direct y'all to this quote from the Big Boss Man himself:

"We have a huge amount of kids' content. We're going to attack that. We think that really differentiates us and we're going to have to really promote it. We haven't been."

I find this statement ironic in the extreme; he admits that Max is lacking in Kids and Family programming, when he's the one who purged the platform of half of its' animation library and then doesn't even try to promote the other half. How are kids supposed to know that new stuff is airing on Max when they never advertise it? Whenever I see a spot for Max, the clips which fall under Family Favorites are always something like Guy's Grocery Games or Shark Week or Meerkat Manor. Guys, you own Cartoon Network. You own Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear and The Flintstones. Mention that in at least one of your commercials. Once again, Zas is talking out of both sides of his mouth. You're "going to have to really promote it"? Sounds great, when are you gonna start?!

Season 2A of Tiny Toons Looniversity debuts on Max on March 8th, next Friday. Has anyone seen a single spot advertising it? 'Cause I haven't.

The lack of promotion for Clone High is somewhat surprising, since WBD usually doesn't hesitate to crow about their adult animation: Rick & Morty, Harley Quinn, Velma. By now I've come to expect them ignoring the all-ages cartoons; do they think Clone High is a kids' cartoon?

To quote @JMTV: "Cracking the kids, my butt."

 

[Goldstar!]

I don't fear for the future of these franchises (I can't speak for Clone High, but Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera will be fine), but the lack of promotion of these shows on Max is indeed annoying.

I've seen only 1 trailer for Looney Tunes Cartoons and only 1 for Jellystone and those were both from back when the service was still called HBO Max, when different people were in charge. I found out that season 3A of Jellystone was coming on February 22 on this site. I knew that new episodes of J! was coming, but I didn't know when. Since the WB/Discovery merger, I've seen only 1 Max promo that was solely devoted to animation, but it was only the adult animation, mainly Rick & Morty, Harley Quinn and Velma. The first 2 I get because those are both popular, established successful shows, but Velma? Freaking Velma?? You don't even mention Jellystone or Clone High, but Velma gets a mention? I was hoping that maybe the promos for the kid-friendly cartoons were airing on Cartoon Network during the day or something, but apparently that's not the case. It's like @JMTV already said: when Paramount is doing a better job of promoting its family-friendly animation than you are, that's a bad sign.

David Zaslav claimed that he was aware that HBO Max doesn't have a lock on kid's programming, and that the company would change that, but then they don't do jack.

 

[awinger24]

I don't fear for the future of these franchises (I can't speak for Clone High, but Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera will be fine), but the lack of promotion of these shows on Max is indeed annoying.

I've seen only 1 trailer for Looney Tunes Cartoons and only 1 for Jellystone and those were both from back when the service was still called HBO Max, when different people were in charge. I found out that season 3A of Jellystone was coming on February 22 on this site. I knew that new episodes of J! was coming, but I didn't know when. Since the WB/Discovery merger, I've seen only 1 Max promo that was solely devoted to animation, but it was only the adult animation, mainly Rick & Morty, Harley Quinn and Velma. The first 2 I get because those are both popular, established successful shows, but Velma? Freaking Velma?? You don't even mention Jellystone or Clone High, but Velma gets a mention? I was hoping that maybe the promos for the kid-friendly cartoons were airing on Cartoon Network during the day or something, but apparently that's not the case. It's like @JMTV already said: when Paramount is doing a better job of promoting its family-friendly animation than you are, that's a bad sign.

David Zaslav claimed that he was aware that HBO Max doesn't have a lock on kid's programming, and that the company would change that, but then they don't do jack.

I can't imagine that any of the shows currently on Cartoon Network and Max like Tiny Toons and Bugs Bunny Builders being shelved or pulled from platforms/retailers. Companies have the right to do what they want with their libraries but I do not support of any tax write-offs or erasing anybody's years of hard work.

If these tax write-offs are still happening months from now, it must be stopped.

 

[Goldstar!]

I haven't heard about any additional write-offs after Coyote VS Acme, and that project was left over from the previous regime. The issue is that Zaslav stated at the 2023 Max Upfront that WBD needed to promote its kids and family programming, and then afterwards they proceed to do...absolutely nothing. It's been said here before, but it bears repeating: how are the viewers at home supposed to know that there are new episodes of Jellystone and that there will be new episodes of Tiny Toons Looniversity on Max next week when there has been zero on-air promotion for ether series? It shouldn't be the creators/producers' jobs to advertise their new shows, but they're the only ones over at Max who are doing so.

 

[JMTV]

Whenever I see a spot for Max, the clips which fall under Family Favorites are always something like Guy's Grocery Games or Shark Week or Meerkat Manor

That should tell you how WBD feels about animation, isn't it?

Rick & Morty, Harley Quinn, Velma.

Don't forget Fionna and Cake.

do they think Clone High is a kids' cartoon?

Never watched Clone High, but as far as I know, that show was never made for kids. It's weird they never advertised its third season.

Velma? Freaking Velma?? You don't even mention Jellystone or Clone High, but Velma gets a mention?

Close Enough and Infinity Train didn't die for this...

I was hoping that maybe the promos for the kid-friendly cartoons were airing on Cartoon Network during the day or something, but apparently that's not the case.

Well, used to during the early days of HBO Max, but now? Nothing.

 

[Pooky]

To be honest it seems like it's been difficult keeping attention on any family-friendly(ish) Animated show in the Streaming era. Animaniacs (2020), Rugrats (2021) and The Cuphead Show all stick in my mind as shows that got quite a bit of coverage for their first season/batch but very little when they returned. Masters of the Universe: Revolution got some last month, but very little compared to the first run in Summer 2021. Obviously it becomes a chicken and egg scenario when there's little to no promotion, but this seems like an even wider problem.

 

[Corwin Haught]

Never watched Clone High, but as far as I know, that show was never made for kids. It's weird they never advertised its third season.

Max licenses Clone High from Paramount, and that could be the reason.